Taylor Swift thanks fans for ‘Cruel Summer’ streams boost that secured it as her next single

Taylor Swift has thanked her fans for streaming her ‘Lover‘ song ‘Cruel Summer’ so much in 2023 that it has persuaded label bosses to release it as her next single.

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Swift told fans last night (June 17) at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium that the song was her “pride and joy” and her “favourite” off her 2019 album. But it never got released as a single.

“The weirdest, most magical thing is happening,” Swift said from the ‘Eras‘ tour stage [via Billboard]. “It’s never happened to me in the whole time I’ve ever been doing this.

“‘Cruel Summer’ is a song, I just played it a second ago. I don’t know if you remember. We had a blast, yeah? The one with the bridge where we all screamed,” she said.

Taylor talking about how Cruel Summer was her favorite and it’s finally becoming a single!!! 🥹#TSTheErasTour #PittsburghTSTheErasTour #CruelSummer@taylornation13 pic.twitter.com/ceK4Zxc6D1

— Holly Caitlin (@holly_caitlin) June 18, 2023

“‘Cruel Summer’ was on the ‘Lover’ album. That album came out four years ago. And I just need to let you know something: ‘Cruel Summer,’ that song was my pride and joy on that album.”

Swift explained, adding of the fan favourite: “You have conversations before the album comes out. Everybody around weighs in on what they think should be singles. I was finally, finally about to have my favourite song become the single — off of ‘Lover.’

“I’m not trying to blame the global pandemic that we had,” Swift said, “but that is something that happened that stopped ‘Cruel Summer’ from ever being a single.”

She continued: “No one understands how this is happening, but you guys have streamed ‘Cruel Summer’ so much right now in 2023 [that Republic Records] just decided to make it the next single.

“Thank you to anyone who’s been listening to that song like 500 times a day.”

The song is released as a single this Tuesday (June 20), Billboard confirmed on Friday (June 16), while Midnights single ‘Karma’ continues on its promotional cycle.

‘Cruel Summer’ returned to the Billboard Hot 100 dated June 3 after it spent two weeks on the chart in September 2019.

Meanwhile, Lorde has shared a message that Taylor Swift sent her around the time that her album ‘Melodrama’ came out.